Toyota Aritsune
University of Shimane
I am going to make a speech on the Russian image in Japanese literature. As for the relation between USSR and Japan there are many books written and sold in Japanese market including those works which were made in Japan 007 adventure novels. But I don't want to mention about those junk fictions. On the 43rd year of late Emperor Shouwa (1968) Yasushi Inoue wrote and published a complete novel titled "Orossiya Koku Suimudan", that means "Drunken Dreams in Russia". This novel was based on a historical facts. The hero's name is Daikokuya Koudayu a captain of a cargo ship in central Japan. He started from his port to Edo ancient name for Tokyo the Capital city of Japan. But Koudayu's ship was wrecked and went to the far northern territory. His broken ship reached to Amchitka Island and he met natives of the Island. But he could not talk with them. Their language was a kind that he had never heard before. His men died one by one and they met Russian fishermen. The Russians took them to the neighboring city and after a hard journey they arrived at Irkutsk where Japanese sailors met at first the occidental civilization such as buildings paved roads soldiers and ladies. The author Inoue described the city of Irkutsk like this magnificent cathedrals and minaret and beautiful ladies never seen before Inoue described the first encounter of educated Japanese and Russian. Koudayu tried to learn Russian language in order to talk with each other. After mastering Russian he asked to the Irkutsk local government to repatriate him to Japan. It needed a permission of Petersburg so he was sent to the Capital of Romanov Dynasty. He met Czaritza Ekaterina at last and was given the permission to go back to Japan.
In his remarkable novel Inoue treated Koudayu's experiences in Russia as if he was sent to the fantastic fairy land. In those days our Japanese image to Soviet Russia was worst. But the novel was sold well and Japanese image to the neighbor ring country was almost changed beyond the iron curtain.
The next author I'm going to introduce is Ryoutarou Shiba. He started his long serial novel in the year 1968 when Inoue published his novel, Shiba's novel was titled as Sakanoue-no Kumo (Cloud on the Hill). This novel treated straight the war between Japan and Russia. After the Meiji Revolution Japan imported many western advanced technologies to build up a rich nation and a strong military power against Japan the Romanov Dynasty Russia expand their territory to China and Korea. So Japan and Russia went on to the collision course Shiba described in this novel many young people who acted their roles in the history. Shiba used bilateral views of each countries. He did not deal Russians as if they were furious and barbarous race. He just wanted to draw up those young men in the dynamic perspective of history. For instance Shiba introduced Takeo Hirose a navy commander who had his career in Russia and dispatched to Russia as a military attach. Hirose stayed in Russia and had many Russian friends and loved Russia. But he got orders to fight against Russia and performed his duty to attack the port of Lushun and died. Adding to those two great late authors I must mention about Hiroyuki Itsugi. He was a graduate of Russian Language Class of Waseda University. Itsugi wrote novels on Japan and Russia. One of his novel was titled as "Saraba Moskova Gurentai" (The last word means gang.) He also wrote a novel of a love between a Japanese geisha girl and a Russian navy officer. Of course there many other writers try to write novels on Japan and Russia. But I hardly know about latest trend of our literal world. So I must stop my speech right now.
Тоёта Арицунэ
Университет Симанэ, Япония
Автор выделяет трех японских писателей, в творчестве которых, по его мнению, наиболее ярко показан образ России. Первый из них - Иноуэ Ясуси, который в 1968 г. опубликовал книгу "Сны о России", написанную на основе реальных событий и исторических источников. Речь идет о судьбе капитана японского судна Кодаю Дайкокуя, корабль которого в XVIII в. потерпел крушение у берегов острова Амчитка. Оказавшись в Иркутске, а затем в Петербурге, Кодаю сумел вернуться в Японию и составил первое описание России. Тоёта Арицунэ отмечает, что книга Иноуэ вышла в свет в те годы, когда для японцев образ Советской России прочно ассоциировался с образом врага, и она позитивно повлияла на формирование в Японии нового имиджа северного соседа.
Отношения между японцами и русскими были в основе романа "Облако на холме" другого японского писателя - Сиба Рётаро. События, описанные в этом романе, происходят на фоне драматической истории русско-японских отношений на рубеже XIX и XX столетий. В центре романа судьба японского морского офицера - атташе в Петербурге, который приобрел в России множество друзей и полюбил эту страну.
И, наконец, Тоёта упоминает писателя Ицуги Хироюки, роман которого посвящен любви русского морского офицера и гейши.